Leveling Up Through Eating

PR: MattForgenti

General looked at Joo-ah with her head buried down to her chest. He knew that she took it for granted. She used a video featuring other people and their faces and made money with that. It was clearly a breach of privacy and a crime.

General knew for a fact that Minhyuk was a kind person. But a kind man and a pushover were too different things. Minhyuk might be a kind person but he was someone who would take care of everything up to the finest details. And he absolutely did not take any loss.

“I, I’ll do my best…… t, to give…… the highest amount of compensation……”

General finally decided to get to the main point. They both knew that Joo-ah was a pretty famous Ztuber so she probably had plenty of valuable information.

“Do you have any information about delicious food?”

“......Yes?”

Joo-ah was taken aback for a moment. She couldn’t understand why he suddenly asked her about that. Usually, this was the part where they would start negotiations until they had reached an agreement. And the usual question would be ‘How much can you give me?’ but General’s words were a bit different.

“I want you to give us information about something delicious. Ah, also it should be something special.”

“......S, something delicious?”

“Yes. Something delicious. I think something that can only be eaten in Athenae will be the best?”

“......”

Joo-ah pondered deeply. She combed through all of the information that she had read but there was only one thing that ticked off that request. It was a very valuable piece of information.

“It’s not something delicious but it’s something along those lines……”

“What is it?”

General tilted his head.

“It, it’s information about a millstone.”

“A millstone?”

When General heard the word ‘millstone’ the first thing that he thought about was……

‘Do you know what they call the handle of a millstone?’

But he soon shook the thought out of his head.

“A millstone…… that’s not something delicious…… hmm……”

However, what Joo-ah said next made sense too.

“It’s not something delicious but if you grind some soy beans then you can make tofu and eat it. And it’s not your usual run-of-the-mill millstone.

“It’s not just a simple millstone?”

General’s was suddenly interested in her information. She looked at Joo-ah as she nodded her head.

“Yes. In fact, there is no exact and official information released yet but according to what I have gathered, if you put something inside and turned it……”

“If you turned it……?”

“You will produce double the amount of what you initially placed inside.”

“......Go on.”

General couldn’t help but be interested in her information.

“But, this millstone has tremendous abilities. They say that it even has endless powers. It was said that if you make tofu with soy beans using this millstone, you will be able to produce a piping hot tofu that tastes better than any other tofu in the world.”

Gulp.

General gulped down his saliva as he listened to her. He couldn’t help but imagine the hot and freshly made tofu that was always sold on the sidewalks. Those piping hot and steaming tofu. He imagined buying a large tofu as the seller cut it up into bite sized pieces then, they would add some stir fried tuna and kimchi on top of it. And once he placed it in his mouth?

‘Just thinking about it is already amazing……’

“That…… uh, your d, drool……”

“Sluuuurp. Ah. Yes.”

‘This is it!’ This was the thought that flashed in General’s mind. He knew that this was something that Minhyuk would definitely like. Also. It was clearly not an ordinary millstone based on what she had told him. This information was enough for them to reach an agreement with Joo-ah.

“We need to find out more information about it as well as its exact location. So, can you tell me your nickname so I can add you?”

“......”

General couldn’t help but wipe his drool at the thought of such an item.

***

Minhyuk and Ben could see the black souls flying all over the palace as soon as they went out of the restaurant. However, Ben immediately used his Ghost Spear and quickly dealt with the enemies that surrounded them. The enemies all fell one by one under the hands of Ghost Spear Ben.

[You have leveled up.]

Since Ben became Minhyuk’s subordinate, Minhyuk was still able to get some EXP from him which led to his level increasing.

Not long after, they were able to push through the throngs of enemies and made their way in front of a huge door. The enemies kept on flocking to where they were so they had no choice but to make their stand here.

“Open the door! We’ll stop these bastards here!”

If they opened the door and limited the area where their enemies could come through then they would be able to stop their fierce assault. This situation was much better compared to blocking their attacks from all sides. But a set of notifications popped out when Minhyuk touched the door.

[Most Powerful Men. Great Mage Rafielt has appeared!]

[You have met one of the Most Powerful Men as your enemy.]

[Whoever hunts and kills one of the Most Powerful Men will gain plenty of rewards.]

“......!”

Minhyuk looked inside as he finished listening to the notifications.

There, he saw the giant figure of the Dragon King. He looked no different than a catfish that could walk. However, he was wearing a luxurious yongpo with the image of a dragon on it. He saw him approach a rabbit that was severely injured.

“......He’s the one who wanted to open up my belly and take away the rabbit’s liver that I ate?!’

Minhyuk would already get angry if someone snatched the food that was in his hands, what more if it was someone who wanted to steal and separate the rabbit’s liver that he had already eaten. So Minhyuk threw his sword with all his might.

When his sword went past through Rafielt and got stuck in a wall, Rafielt laughed at him as if he was looking at some ridiculous being.

“You bastard……?”

Before Rafielt could finish his words, Minhyuk raised his hand.

‘While his guard against me is still down……’

The sword that was stuck neatly in the wall vibrated strongly as it got sucked away by Minhyuk’s outreached hand.

Spuuuurt!

“Keheoheok!”

Rafielt, with his back left unguarded, screamed in pain when the sword grazed his back. He could see black smoke rising from the injury inflicted on his back.

Minhyuk clenched his sword tightly.

‘I’ll definitely get that delicious snow crab and enjoy some snow crab pancakes as well as snow crab ramyeon at the end of this fight……!’

He remembered eating plenty of snow crabs with his father back when he was a child. And every time they ate it, Minhyuk would always say……

‘Father, it tastes like crab meat sticks!’

‘Haha. It’s an extremely delicious and hot crab meat stick!’

In fact, the taste of snow crabs were really too similar with crab meat sticks and Minhyuk wanted to taste the flavor of the snow crab again.

Minhyuk looked behind him and saw Ben standing by the door as he blocked the enemies from entering. He was fighting against them alone.

Minhyuk clenched Ellie’s sword tightly.

Dash!

Then he started running.

“Bastard!”

Great Mage Rafielt glared at him fiercely as he waved his hand in the air. Following his movements, a huge wand sprang up in front of him. He grabbed the wand and waved in Minhyuk’s direction.

Suddenly, black mana flew out and surrounded Minhyuk’s body.

[Great Mage Rafielt’s Seven Deadly Sins. Sloth.]

[You have become lazy. You do not want to do anything.]

[You have an invincible body that can ignore and resist all abnormal states.]

[You have resisted an abnormal state.]

It was the Seven Deadly Sins! The curse of Great Mage Rafielt! Minhyuk had fought against one of his curses, the sin of gluttony, before. Back then, he fought against it without any protection whatsoever against abnormal states. But this time, he was able to resist it thanks to his invincible body.

“......!”

Great Mage Rafielt took a step back when he saw that Minhyuk was still unaffected and was still running straight at him.

‘H, how……?’

He was dumbfounded. He was well aware that his curse had a powerful force that could never be resisted. And once you had fallen under the sin of sloth, you would not want to do anything at all. Even if someone slashed you right at the neck, you would still do nothing. But the young man in front of him was different. He was clearly running straight toward himself with no signs of stopping at all.

[Fire Field.]

[A huge area of flame will engulf your enemy in an instant.]

Puhaaaaaaaaaa!

Blazing black flames suddenly rose from all over the floor. Before the flames could reach him, Minhyuk had already pulled the frying pan off of his back. As soon as he held the frying pan, his magical defense had increased by x2.

Crackle!

Minyuk felt the heat that the flames were emitting.

‘It’s not that hot……’

It was not his frying pan that contributed to his increase in magical defense. The increase in his holy power not only had increased both his physical defense and physical attack power but it also boosted both his magical defense and magical attack power. If anyone looked closely, they would be able to see that Minhyuk’s magical defense was leagues beyond that of the ordinary tankers.

Minhyuk quickly launched a fierce magic attack towards Great Mage Rafielt’s Fire Field. Dozens of spears of water flew off straight at the fire. Sparks were created when both magical attacks met with each other. However, Minhyuk was still able to blow away the black flames that almost surrounded the area.

Rafielt who was outside the area of the flame field suddenly heard a strange sound.

Clang!

‘......Clang?’

Rafielt’s forehead creased in suspicion.

At that moment…

Clang!

With another strange sound ringing clearly on his ears, he saw a spear of water aiming straight towards him from inside the flame field.

Shwaaaaaa!

Bang!

He hurriedly blocked it with a black shield. Not long after, more than half of the magic attack that Minhyuk had launched arrived in front of him.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!

Clang, clang!

Puhaaa!

At the same time, Minhyuk burst through the flames and went straight at his neck. Great Mage Rafielt quickly set dozens of black shields around him.

“I’m going to eat snow crabs…...! I’m going to eat! Spicy braised snow crabs!”

Minhyuk, who screamed something weird, wielded his sword high as he used Rampant Sword, Connection (Inherit) with all his might.

[Rampant Sword. Connection (Inherit)]

[One strike will result in 7 powerful strikes with an additional 40% damage.]

Minhyuk also enlarged his frying pan to be as big as his body and used to slap Great Mage Rafielt.

Claaaang!

At that moment, the black shields and the frying pan slammed against each other.

Crash!

Great Mage Rafielt breathed a sigh of relief when the shields blocked Minhyuk’s attacks successfully.

‘You won’t be able to break my shields!’

He decided to end this useless fight once and for all by sending out a strong and ferocious attack towards this daring man that ran and delivered himself in front of him. But just as he was going to move his arms…

Clang!

Another attack came through. However, this time after receiving overlapping attacks, the shield suddenly cracked.

Clang, clang!

Crack!

The shield soon shattered into pieces. Then……

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Four straight attacks slammed on Great Mage Rafielt’s head.

“Keheoheok!”

The attacks seemed like it took a toll on him and he stayed in a daze for a moment. Before he knew it, Minhyuk was already standing in front of him. He saw Minhyuk quickly place the frying pan on his back as he gripped his sword tightly.

[Sword of Fury. Shatter (Destroy)]

[There will be an additional 60% for strong lunges and stabs, if a vital strike is successful then the additional attack power will be 100%.]

Great Mage Rafielt saw that the sword in the hands of the man in front of him was suddenly filled with a great force. He keenly felt that he would take a heavy damage if this sword stabbed straight at him.

Vwoooooooom━

A huge amount of mana was swiftly gathered in Great Mage Rafielt’s hands. After gathering the mana, he quickly thrusted his hand at Minhyuk.

Baaaaang!

The tip of his sword and the explosive mana collided.

Swoooooooosh!

The Sword of Fury ripped the mana into pieces and Shatter (Destroy) pierced straight through Rafielt’s abdomen.

[You have succeeded in stabbing a vital point.]

[100% additional damage!]

Baaaaaaang!

Rafielt felt a powerful force exploding and ravaging inside his body.

“Kiheeeek!”

A painful and indiscernible scream tore through the mouth of Greath Mage Rafielt. His black soul even popped out of the body of the Dragon King for a moment before coming back inside.

“How dare you, how dare……!”

‘Is his HP really that high?’

Minhyuk’s eyes widened when he realized that he only scratched the surface of Rafielt’s HP. Then, he saw Great Mage Rafielt waving his arm.

When Great Mage Rafielt waved his arm, all of the black souls that were scattered all over the palace that entered the countless creatures dwelling inside were suddenly pulled away from those bodies. Their numbers were at the hundreds at the very least. And with another wave of his hand, these black souls shrieked as they were sucked back inside the body of Great Mage Rafielt.

“Kyaaaaaak!”

“Keuaaaaaack!”

“Aaaaaaaaack!”

[Rafielt’s HP has fallen below 50%.]

[His Skill: Soul Devour has been triggered.]

[His magical attack and magical defense has temporarily increased by 1.8x]

[His Skill: Soul Recovery has been triggered.]

[All of his wounds are recovering at a rapid pace.]

“......!”

Minhyuk also remembered that when Rumad, the person he fought before, also triggered some skills when his HP dropped below a certain level. He could easily fight toe to toe against Great Mage Rafielt because of his tremendously high Holy Power. However, if this situation would happen every time then the flow of the story would definitely change.

Crackle, swoosh, fwoosh!

The space between them was suddenly torn apart as a flame that was bigger and hotter than any regular flame appeared inside of it.

[Hellfire.]

[A huge fire summoned from hell has now been created.]

The users in the entire world who could cast such a high level magic like this could only be counted by the fingers on one’s hand. Such was the greatness and might of the magic, Hellfire.

When Minhyuk saw this magic being formed in front of his eyes, he could clearly tell that……

‘If I get hit by that…… then I’d die……!’

The items in the surroundings were slowly starting to melt. This just showed how terrifying the heat and might of this blazing ball of flame. It wasn’t even touching anything but it could still melt the things in its surrounding. It was so hot to the point that Minhyuk could feel the heat after widening the gap between him and Rafielt.

“......!”

Ben also looked flustered when he saw the Hellfire being created.

“Die, you son of a bitch!”

Shwaaaaaa!

The huge ball of Hellfire quickly flew towards Minhyuk at an astonishing speed. When Ghost Spear Ben saw this, he quickly kicked the ground as he braced himself to throw his spear.

[Ghost’s Counter Spear.]

[The rotating spear will offset the enemy’s attack in an instant.]

Ben threw his spear with all his might. When he let go of the spear, a huge swirling vortex was formed as it flew straight towards the incoming attack.

Once the spear and the hellfire met in the air…...

Vrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The counter spear tried to offset the Hellfire. However, when it was just about to dig straight into it and break the attack, the spear suddenly fell down on the floor.

“This……!”

Old Man Ben’s eyebrows furrowed in distress. At this rate, neither he nor Minhyuk would be able to escape. Both of them would be swallowed by that huge hellfire.

However, right at that moment…...

Shwaaaaaa!

A huge wall of water sprung up from the ground as it created a barrier between them and the hellfire. As soon as the barrier formed, the huge wall of water was formed into a tidal wave and rushed straight towards the hellfire.

Minhyuk and Ben’s heads both turned towards the source of the water. There, they saw Kiari with her pierced abdomen with her head cushioned on Jevis’ knees. They could also see Jevis tremblingly raised her hands as a huge force suddenly spread out from her palms.

[The Chosen Child’s Blessings.]

[All of your stats will increase by 30%, your magical defense will increase by 50% for 10 minutes.]

Then, Kiari shouted at them.

“Anything. I’ll give you anything you want……! That’s why, please…… please…… save…… our Dragon King-nim and…… our Dragon King’s Palace…...!”

Minhyuk had no idea about their situation at all but he could still somewhat guess about what had happened. So he nodded his head in agreement.

He quickly enlarged his frying pan to cover both him and Ben and protect them from the incoming attack.

Then, the huge Hellfire first collided with the tidal wave that Kiari had created.

Fwiiiiiiiiiiiiiish!

***

Footnotes

[Do you know what the handle of a millstone is called?] 맷돌 손잡이를 뭐라고 부르는지 알아요? - 어이. It is literally the handle of the millstone that they use. However, it could also mean annoying. So the question is a pun for annoying. Back.

[Yongpo]  용포 - the robe mostly worn by royalties. The red colored robe that is usually worn by kings in KDrama are called gonryongpo. This is the usual clothes worn by the king, the crown prince and the first born of the crown prince. Back

TL’s corner!

Not gonna lie, when I saw that the dragon king looked like a catfish wearing the dragon robe…… I was shocked. I thought he was more human-like or like a merman or something. Thanks for breaking my fantasies author-nim.

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